Kerns: Inhibitions lost while dancing at Silent Disco

Those passing by all those dancers filling the street during the final hours of the Lubbock Music Fest on Sept. 28 and 29 won’t hear a bit of music being played.

Mind you, they will no doubt witness hundreds of young patrons dancing, and perhaps laughing and even screaming with happiness to their hearts’ content. They just won’t hear any of the musical beats to which these happy hundreds are moving in rhythmic fashion.

It is called Silent Disco — although the music is not necessarily always of the disco variety.

Silent Disco will close the festival outdoors from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. both nights at the intersection of 18th Street and Buddy Holly Avenue.

This isn’t the debut of Silent Disco in Lubbock, but this time the event is being staged by Smooth Productionz, a Dallas company operated by a trio of Texas Tech graduates: Blake Cobb, 24; Cliff Fielden, 25; and Chris Booras, 26.

Cobb — a Lubbock native, 2006 Monterey High School graduate and 2010 Tech alum — was first introduced to Silent Disco six years ago in Europe.

With a college degree in business, he explained, “I’ve always liked the idea of working for myself.”

He and his two friends decided to become business partners and focus primarily on building up Smooth Productionz in Austin, Houston and Lubbock.

Cobb added that the toughest part of pulling off Silent Disco is trying to explain what it is to investors ... and reporters.

“But once people get involved, they all love it,” he added.

The primary equipment needed is an abundance of wireless headphones.

In Lubbock, there also will be three deejays set up in a highly visible area. They will be playing country music, classic rock music and Top 40 radio hits.

Each set of wireless headphones will have three channels, with a different colored LED light visible on each headphone channel. This allows others to see whether that person is listening to country, classic rock or Top 40.

“There really is a cyber community being formed out on the dance floor,” said Cobb. “You’ll see someone dancing crazy and want to check out what music they are listening to, so you can get involved.”

In truth, Cobb said that Silent Disco actually was born as a reaction to areas where people wanted to party, but without receiving any further noise complaints from neighbors.

There are volume controls on each set of headphones, allowing dancers to listen to music as loud as they wish.

“With all of the external noise blocked out, it’s fun to watch people just sort of let go,” said Cobb. “Some people just close their eyes and pretend they are on their own.

“But what I really love is watching people lose all their inhibitions. I’ve seen people in Wranglers and boots wind up dancing with blacks doing hip hop to Tupac. They just stretch their boundaries.”

Smooth Productionz, which was formed in September of 2011 after a great deal of experimentation, will be used for a dance party at Lubbock Music Fest. The company provides everything needed. They hire the deejays, provide the signage and invest in the wireless headphones.

For that matter, the company can produce Silent Disco events in more than one city on the same night. Smooth Productionz has 3,000 headphones in stock, thus far.

But Silent Disco is not limited to parties.

Cobb said that Silent Disco also has been used for charity events, yoga classes and any number of other classes.

“When you put these headphones on and block out all external noise,” explained Cobb, “you have a better one-on-one experience. Teachers find that they are able to retain a student’s attention span much longer.”

The only problem he has encountered so far arrives, he said, “after someone has had four or five beers, and assumes that our headphones will work just as well back at home.

“So some headphones wind up being stuck under a shirt or inside a purse.”

Cobb said, “These people find out pretty quickly that our wirelesss headphones won’t work at home.”

Meanwhile, Cobb contiues to visit more Texas cities, intent on creating a data base large enough to allow Smooth Productionz to provide deejays and equipment whenever and wherever they are asked.

“Our business has definitely snowballed,” he concluded.

By the way, it is not unheard of for Silent Disco headphones to rent for $20 or more. At next month’s Lubbock Music Fest, the rental price drops to $10.

Chat about movies, theater, music, dance and visual arts at my blog playBill by Kerns at lubbockonline.com — or check out Twitter at AJ_WilliamKerns.